The Open Innovation movement is an emerging trend in which companies are reaching out beyond their own R&D groups to partners, customers, and the public in search of new innovation.   This is opposed to the traditional process of relying on internal resources for R&D and innovation.  Open Innovation initiatives have grown in popularity over the past few years at both technology companies, like IBM, and consumer product companies, like Proctor and Gamble.   Kraft earned recognition as the first packaged food company to employ the principles of open innovation, going so far as to establish a toll free hotline (1-800-OPN-IDEA) for innovators with a burning need to share their ideas.  In the past month, Campbells and Nestle have both discussed their Open Innovation initiatives, sending the call out for new product concpets, packaging technologies, and business models.  NineSigma is a company that manages open innovation programs for a broad range of companies, including (according to their website) General Mills, Philip Morris, Unilever, and Kimberly Clark.   

The Open Innovation model is a powerful tool for consumer product companies to explore new product opportunities and to address urgent challenges associated with sustainable manufacturing.  Advanced process technologies - such as low energy electron beam - can play a role in enabling the development of new product concepts and drastically reducing the environmental impact of package converting and aseptic filling operations.  Integrating new process technologies requires collaboration between technology providers, equipment suppliers, system integrators, and the suppliers of packaging material. Traditionally, innovation related to process technology has been closed and highly guarded by the brand owner or equipment manufacturer hoping to increase profits with proprietary technology.   To effectively address the challenges facing modern consumer packaged goods companies, the industry must abandon some if its secretiveness and employ, at least some level, of Open Innovation principles.

AEB is interested in collaborating with all members of the consumer packaging ecosystem - brand owners, co-packers, converters, filling equipment providers, printing technology providers, packaging material providers, ink and chemical companies,and raw materials providers.   Our Applications Consulting Group and System Integration team can be valuable partners in designing solutions to complex Aseptic Filling and Printing and Packaging challenges.